Gain insights into applying Agile methods in large projects and teams. Explore challenges, best practices, and strategies to secure organizational buy-in for successful implementation.

Agile methods allow us to handle rapidly changing requirements, typical in most software projects. These methods are conventionally used for small teams and software projects. However, in this course, you will learn how to effectively apply Agile methods to large software projects and large teams.

You’ll start with a recap of the Agile Manifesto, followed by a description of the common challenges associated with Agile methods in the context of large software projects. You’ll learn how Agile approaches have been applied to build responsibility. Next, you’ll learn about approaches to apply Agile methods in the processes. You will then learn best practices for applying Agile methods such as software testing, and software architecture. 

This course provides insights into successful and unsuccessful approaches to introducing agility to teams, processes, and technology aspects of large projects. It also teaches strategies to secure organizational buy-in for agility in the context of large projects and teams.

Applying Agile Methods to Large Teams and Projects

# Establishing short iterations

The results of the interviews served as a starting point for our scaled agile development process. It turned out that implementing really short development cycles was extremely important. We established release cycles lasting three weeks, each consisting of three one-week iterations. The goal of each release cycle was some additional useful functionality for the customer.

## Installing short iterations, a closed release cycle, and an always-running system
 
One of the main arguments for installing short iterations was that we wanted to be able to correct mistakes as early as possible. Only a closed release cycle, which is a cycle that lasts for a defined time and concludes with a specified outcome, gave us the possibility of evaluating the system under development. Insisting on an always-running system helped us detect major issues right at the beginning like integration, how to implement acceptance tests, and how to bring the system into production. We preferred to solve these issues, as long as the system was rather small, because this allowed us to try different approaches, rather than address those issues later on when the system had gotten big.



Learn about the author's experience and their opinion of short iterations, and the use of timeboxing during the case study project.

Introduction to the Course

Agility and Largeness

Dealing with Large Teams

Dealing with the Process

Dealing with the Technology

Dealing with the Company

Putting It All Together: A Project Report (Case Study)

Final Thoughts

Growing the Team: Establishing Short Iterations

Establishing short iterations

Installing short iterations, a closed release cycle, and an always-running system